It's good to hear that the demo is good, I'm gonna download it as soon as I get home. It kind of worries me though, 'cause if I want to get this game and stick by my pathetic little principles I'm gonna have to import a second hand retail copy of the game from the US so as not to get a digital copy and not give Capcom my money directly.

@r_hjort
What'd Capcom do??

@TriforceBun
They don't give certain games retail releases in Europe, they produce physical "bundles" of games where only one of the games is a physical release and the other is a download code, they only release Resident Evil 7 in Japan and to top it off it's a thinly veiled streaming distribution experiment more than anything, and they're being wishy-washy dicks in general when it comes to Switch support. Especially in Europe.

@r_hjort

Oh yeahhh, I forgot about that stupid RE7 thing. The code bundles have been aggravating too. In their defense though, they're one of the last remaining companies of the Japanese old guard that are still pumping out quality, console software. MM11 is on the right track and the latest Ace Attorney games have been great. I think a lot of companies are trying different business and pricing models right now, and most of it is anti-consumer and annoying as heck, so I'm hoping that phase passes sooner rather than later. Street Fighter 5 was another one built around a dumb tower of microtransactions.

Trying the demo now. I'm kind of meh about it . The visuals are pleasant to look at, especially the colour palette, but everything is kind of bland. The controls do their job, but something about them feels ever so slightly off to me. Not that they're imprecise, but in the sense that it doesn't feel exactly like Mega Man to me. Can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the flow, the shooting and the jumping that doesn't feel right. Not as rewarding, not enough oomph.

Might have something to do with the sound, because man, that's pretty bad by Mega Man standards. The sound effects are weak, the music is nowhere near the quality it should be (the style is all wrong, IMO) and Mega Man needs to shut the fuck up.

Don't want to sound too down on this, but it's not exactly Mega Man 9, this.

@TriforceBun
Don't bet on it being a phase. The only reason any of these practices disappear is that they're going into hibernation until the consumers are sufficiently malleable to the changes at which point they come back, or if they come up with another way of maximizing profit at our expense. Capcom is no longer a company that I feel comfortable supporting, especially not as a Switch owner.

My first impression is... the graphics and music are boring. I honestly would have just preferred another 8-bit style with chiptunes or something.

With that said, the demo level had some interesting mechanics so if it is representative of the whole game, it should be pretty solid.

Sonic Mania did its revival so, so right. Mega Man 11 should have done something similar. Especially when it comes to the music. I'm the kind of guy that wants the Mega Man soundtracks to have melodies inspired by rock, but a production and sound more along the lines of electronic music, like it was when the series started out and technical limitations basically forced the devs to do things like that. But this, this is all dance music. And boring dance music at that.

EDIT: But, in order to say something positive: The boss fight was pretty good. I still prefer the more simplistic fights of old, but this changed things up in an alright way. Worst part about it was the sound. Again. Why can't everyone just shut their yap?

I gotta say, I'm not a huge fan of what I've played. It made it realize that I really need save states and rewind features to power through Mega Man games nowadays.

Perhaps this is me coming off Dead Cells, but the controls felt stiff, and more than once I feel like I missed jumps through no fault of my own.

Because of this, the two vertical sections with blocks and conveyor belts were just a miserable platforming experience.

I ended up knocking down the difficulty to Casual, which did help me finish the demo. You get 5 lives, which is nice, and some of the more maddeningly placed enemies are gone. But it still didn't make the game fun, to me.

@Guillaume
I like the idea behind that platforming section (especially since the level design was very light on rewarding platforming, I felt) but it's not very well realized in the end.

@r_hjort

The lack of a visceral punch to the proceedings is definitely a sound effects issue. I tried playing with the sound levels, but Mega Man's blaster sound is simply too soft compared to other noises. If you hate the voices, you can always turn them off at least. I think they're a step up from Mega Man 8 (but that's a pretty low bar to clear).

I'd say Mega Man's "Sonic Mania" revival was more Mega Man 9, and while I really like Sonic Mania, I think its extra focus on older stages makes it feel a tad too familiar to me. I would've loved more brand new levels.

Definitely agree about the feel of the music being all wrong. I don't think this composer--Marika Suzuki--was right for the job. Within the Mega Man franchise, she'd only worked on the Star Force series prior to this. Should've found the Inti Creates musician.

@TriforceBun
You can turn off the voices? I must have misread the menus! Will replay the demo with them turned off!

They could have gone with the Inti Creates team, or tried to hire an all-star team of the old composers (I mean, they've done that before after all), but based on what I've played I don't think the game deserves that kind of soundtrack.

EDIT: Oh maaaaaan, I'm so happy you pointed out that I could turn off the voices. I have no idea how I missed that in the menu since I actually actively looked for the option and everything! I blame this cold that I've got coming on.

I also realized a tiny thing that makes me think that this game doesn't feel right. We don't get that minor time stop effect and bleeping noise when we pick up health and stuff anymore. I actually really miss that. It made it feel more rewarding to heal, and it made it more noticeable just how much health you got back. It's like when Zelda games do the little lag on sword hits and stuff like that.

There are more minor details that add up, for me. Like totally inconsequential stuff that don't really affect anything in terms of gameplay, but still irk me. Like how you can't 'ride' the screen scrolling when entering the boss rooms. Like, you jump into the door and then the scrolling pushes you through into the room without Mega Man touching the ground. You can't do that anymore. I miss the small touches, because they are indicative of how much love went into the project.

EDIT: Lol, just noticed that RawMeatCowboy over at GoNintendo has noticed the same thing about the boss doors.

I enjoyed the demo. The controls felt great and the stage has some fun moments.

Question though...how do you avoid taking damage from Block Man's second form when he slams his hand on the ground? I can avoid the big punch and the blocks he flings from the ground, but I can't avoid the slam if he has me cornered. I either ended up taking the hit or using Impact Man's dash ability to cross to the other side of the map. I liked the battle, but that one attack was frustrating.

The stage theme was a bit underwhelming, but it grew on me somewhat after a few loops. And yeah, I was disappointed when Mega Man dropped to the ground after I jumped through the boss door...

I gotta say, the demos for this and Valkyria Chronicles 4 upped my excitement for both games!

@Octorockin
I ended up trying to bait him into attacking when he was at a distance far away enough from the wall that I could slide over to the corner when he telegraphed his slam, but that didn't work 100% either.

@Octorockin

For the hand slam attack, that had me stymied for a while too. If you stay in the bottom corner, he can't hit you with it. If you instinctively jump or move forward even a bit, you'll take damage. It's kind of the opposite of his block toss attack where it requires you to move forward through the projectiles.

@r_hjort

I didn't mind the boss door thing as much because you can still activate the boss door by jumping and touching it. Mega Man floating through the screen scroll was always more of a secondary benefit to me!

One detail I do really like is what happens when you hit a Met with a charged blast.

@r_hjort @TriforceBun

Thanks, guys! I'll try using those strategies the next time I fight Block Man.

And yeah, I was surprised by what happened when I hit a Met with a charged blast. Have they ever reacted to charged blasts that way in any other Mega Man game?

@TriforceBun
I think he's supposed to not be able to reach you when you stick to the bottom corner, so that's good advice, but he's been able to hit me like that once or twice. I think some sort of glitch made him stop walking too late before his attack animations set in or something, 'cause his hand was basically in the wall at that point.

Demo was pretty cool, IMO. Agreed with everyone that the music was ho-hum, and I’m still not thrilled with the running animation. (seriously, they should have just did a copy/paste of Mega Man from Smash Bros. instead) but overall I liked it. I love/hate the voices. To me, they are like, annoyingly funny. (Reminds me of “Hi I’m Daisy!” from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! back in the day) I leave the voices on so I can hate-play them, LOL.

Gameplay was solid, which is most important. Looking forward to the full game!

@Guillaume

Git gud!

@GameDadGrant
They really should have copy/pasted the running animation. And the shooting animation. And the jumping animation. And the character design.
I'm impressed that you can enjoy the voices. After T-bun pointed out I could turn them off I've been enjoying the demo a whole lot more. Still not very happy with it, though.

Had this been a Mega Man inspired action game I'd probably be praising this to high heaven for its promising demo, but since it's an actual Capcom developed Mega Man game I'm just worried now since there are so many minor details to the old games they're leaving out.

The sound is really a big thing for me, and the sounds themselves and the way they're mixed is off. Like the shooting sound and the landing sound after a jump are far too low in the mix, IMO (not to mention the way they sound, but that's another thing). Having that little audio cue telling you Mega Man is touching the ground has really helped me time the jumps and get a feel for how to move in the past, but now that's gone too.

What does everyone think of the gear system? So far I don't know what to think. Haven't used it a whole lot to be honest.

@r_hjort

Keep in mind I’m a weirdo that actually likes the voices in Mega Man 8, sooo....yeah.

Yeah, there are little details and such missing, but I’m not too worried about it. It’s a new game, and I’m not expecting everything old to be in this latest edition. The major thing - the gameplay - I feel they nailed, so fringe details like the Boss Door and the “feet on the ground after a jump” sound effect matter so, so little to me.

And who knows, maybe those will be in the final release?

@GameDadGrant
Oh yeah, I forgot about your...inclinations.

I didn't expect this new game to be exactly like the old, but these things I'm talking about have an impact on parts of the gameplay that should feel the same across the board when talking about games in a series. They affect how it feels to move around and by extension how I play the game, and it doesn't play quite like Mega Man should, to me. The boss room jump isn't the biggest issue, it's just the wax cherry on top of this sundae that I'm starting to fear might be more shaving cream than ice cream at this point, but all the other smaller parts add up.

This is the type of thing that Nintendo treats like a science in its own right, and makes sure that Mario's weight and momentum, for instance, feels right, before they apply new mechanics on top of the core platforming. It would be totally possible for them to do all the other new stuff, like the gear system and the big-ass bosses and even crazier things, while still keeping the old details in place.